Artemisia said:Here's an article, in French, in today's Le Figaro about the first
anniversary of the introduction of the Vélib free public bicycle
scheme and its successes and costs.
The upshot is, Velib brings in big money to the City of Paris, but is
extremely costly to JCDecaux, the advertizing firm that is under
contract to supply and maintain the bikes in return for advertizing
poster space. The main reason for the high costs being, surprise me,
vandalism and theft.
For those who can read French, some of the reader comments are pretty
interesting as well.
Babelfish translated well enough:
In one year, it conquered 200.000 subscribers for 25 million uses, but
the flights and degradations would concern nearly 30 % of the park.
It is an undeniable blow marketing. One of these “signals” whose
magazines raffolent and who feed their sagas annual. Besides the Town
of Paris intends to celebrate the first year of Vélib', its bicycle in
self-service, on the Fields-Élysées… Like all the great French
victories. Next on July 27, 350 lucky ones, of the amateurs of the
small Parisian queen recruited by a play Internet, will go up the
avenue a few hours before the runners of the Tour de France. Actually,
it is last on July 15 which the first blow of pedal was given. The
hour of the first assessments sounded. Far from being a pink and green
legend of ecology, Vélib' is a frightening machine of economic and
political war, fruit of a wild battle between two giants of the
advertising display and the ambition of a man, Bertrand Delanoë…
With 25 million hirings in one year of exercise, 200 000 subscribers
and more than 16 000 bicycles, Vélib' was essential on Paris like the
pillar-shaped billboard and the small black with the counter. Each
day, the Parisian ones carry out some 120 000 ways, with a point with
141 200 on June 21 for the Festival of the music, and even with 180
000 last October during the strikes. According to a survey ordered for
the City by the JCDecaux operator, the rate of satisfaction of the
users plank 98 %. Icing on the cake, the City should box this year
nearly 30 million euros thanks to the only product of the hirings.
Without counting the political profit from which Bertrand Delanoë
profited during the last electoral campaign. Vélib' made forget the
failures of the transport policy of first mandature. The congestions,
the suppression of the parking spaces, the corridors of bus, work of
the tram however fed the grogne of Parisian during four years. “It is
an good idea, recognizes Pierre-Yves Bournazel, elected UMP of the
Town of Paris, moreover would have implemented we it. But from there
to forget the inconsistency of the municipal team as regards
transport…” Sign success: Delanoë and the former assistant charged
with transport between 2001 and 2007, Denis Baupin, now reorientated
on sustainable development, dispute the paternity of Vélib'. In the
entourage of the mayor, one does not hesitate to entrust that the
Green elected official did not believe “really” in Vélib', in any case
“not to this scale”. “I am president of the cycle cities all the same,
defends Baupin, and I went to Lyon to study the Lyons system of loan.
In any case, I am undoubtedly the elected official who serves more his
season ticket.”
Rétropédalage
At the end of 2006, the team of Bertrand Delanoë is aware that the
assessment transport is not with the advantage of the mayor. This last
then takes its distances with the Greens, whose speech anti-motorists
makes devastations. At the same moment, in Lyon, the socialist mayor,
Gerard Collomb, made figure of deus ex machina of urban displacement.
It receives the mayors of the whole world to present his Vélo' v. To
Paris, Delanoë understands quickly there that it holds a way of taking
again the hand. The communication is gradually recadrée, some
corridors of rectified buses and Bertrand Delanoë asks his teams to
launch Vélib' as fast as possible. “At the beginning, they sent spies
to us, joke Gilles Vesco, adviser delegated to displacements in Lyon.
Then Baupin and Delanoë came officially.” The operation is carried out
beating drum. In six months, the City denounces the advertising
contract which binds it with JCDecaux and lance an invitation to
tender which couples as in Lyon ad space and bicycles in self-service.
The two giants of posting, American Clear Chanel and the JCDecaux
national champion, find themselves face to face with the desire of in
découdre. Commercial higher bids of recourse in front of the courts,
it is JCDecaux which gains the market. “In a first round, recognizes
an municipal employee, Clear Chanel had made the best offer. At the
time, JCDecaux had proposed only 8 000 bicycles and an additional
royalty of one euro per annum. They finally put in the basket 20 000
bicycles, 1 450 stations and 11 million over ten years.”
Extension to the blocked suburbs
Socialist and liberal, Delanoë made play full law with the market. To
obtain 1 600 billboards (2 and 8 square meters) travelling in Paris,
one of the most beautiful windows of the world, JCDecaux accepted an
unconscionable bargain. The name Vélib' belongs to the City which is
also owner of the system. JCDecaux, service provider, must provide 20
000 bicycles permanently feeding 1 450 stations. For the moment, there
are of them 16 000 in circulation for 1 300 stations. The Cyclocity
company, subsidiary of the group, is indeed confronted with a problem
of vandalism and degradation of important use which obère the
profitability of the operation. Of Lyon, where the service was
inaugurated, JCDecaux requires however a revision of the contract. “He
says to us to lose 3 million euros per annum, recognizes Gilles Vesco,
a company cannot accept a chronic deficit but we are not ready to re-
examine the contract for as much. Lyon took a risk.” In Paris, these
would be the 3 000 bicycles which would have been stolen since one
year and almost as much put except service over the same period, that
is to say nearly 30 % of the park. The customs officers frequently
find in Marseilles of Vélib' in the containers of the ferries which go
to the Maghreb. And the tourists were accustomed to cross them in the
streets of Casablanca. A few weeks ago, it is in Romania that a
Parisian bicycle was found in a camp of Roms. The overcosts are
important. Some 1 500 bicycles must be repaired each day and in 20 %
of the cases, the intervention must be carried out in a workshop of
Cyclocity. Under are such conditions, the gravitational tariffs
offered to Parisian (29 euros the yearly subscription, 7 euros for one
week and 1 euro the day with the first thirty free minutes) bearable
on the long run? The more so as the intermediate duration of use of
Vélib' never exceeds the twenty-two minutes. Cyclocity already had to
make important modifications of its bicycle. The chains of bicycles in
particular had to be reinforced, like the too light executives to
resist the urban use. Lastly, the baskets also had to be welded more
firmly to avoid the flights in series. Each bicycle would cost nearly
2 500 euros Decaux whereas the plane business of origin had budgeted
for them around 1 000 euros. Jean-Charles Decaux, president of the
directory of JCDecaux, remains very discrete on these figures of
exploitation. “Our company is with dimensions, rétorque it with the
smile, these elements belong to our secrecies house. We invest 85
million euros on this program which combines movable urban, contained
services and publicity. It is an axis of major development for the
group. Today, we have 38 000 bicycles in circulation in the world and
several large capitals are interested.”
The extension of Vélib' to the cities of the suburbs for the moment is
blocked. And JCDecaux cannot count on a captive market in Ile-de-
France, Clear Chanel indeed engaged a recourse in front of the Council
of State to oblige each municipality to pass an invitation to tender
and to choose its own operator. “Large Paris of the bicycle” is not
for tomorrow.
